Sometime around 2 a.m. Friday, a private security guard noticed a man dressed in all black and walking with a backpack near the San Francisco home of Nancy Pelosi.
Authorities say that man was David DePape and the bag contained zip ties, a rope and a hammer.
His goal, federal prosecutors allege, was to kidnap and torture the House speaker and then potentially move on to other high-profile targets.
What he didn’t know was that Nancy Pelosi was not at home that morning, and the only person in the house was her husband, Paul Pelosi.
But the speaker’s absence — along with that of her security detail — made her grand Pacific Heights home a much easier target.
It also has raised new questions about security measures for top officials in a time of rising political divisions and growing threats.
With Nancy Pelosi gone, the home’s typically hefty U.S. Capitol Police security detail was downgraded significantly. Pelosi’s security team travels with her, and she was in Washington at the time.
According to a law enforcement source, Capitol Police have a video feed from cameras at her San Francisco home, which captured the break-in. The source said that because Pelosi was not at the residence, the video feed was not being monitored, and officials noticed a problem only when they saw police car lights at the home.
It is unclear whether there was a requirement to monitor the cameras at the San Francisco house in Nancy Pelosi’s absence. Details about the Capitol Police recording were first reported by the Washington Post.
According to prosecutors, DePape smashed through the glass patio door of the Pelosis’ home around 2 a.m. Friday.
The unidentified security guard told police he had seen a man dressed in all black and walking with a backpack shortly before hearing a loud banging, according to a federal affidavit against DePape. A law enforcement source said San Francisco police regularly patrol the area but don’t have a permanent station at the home.
It is unclear whether any alarms at the house sounded, but officials said after breaking in, DePape managed to get to the second floor.
There, he found Paul Pelosi, 82, sleeping and repeatedly shouted, “Where’s Nancy?” officials said.
Realizing the potential danger, Pelosi managed to make a quick, surreptitious phone call to 911 and left the line open, authorities said. A 911 dispatcher realized something was seriously wrong and immediately sent police to the address. Officers were told there was a man inside the home named David, whom Pelosi did not know.
When an officer arrived at Pelosi’s door and asked, “What is going on here?” DePape and Pelosi were wrestling with a hammer, authorities said. Then DePape “wrenched” it from Pelosi, “stepped back and lunged at Mr. Pelosi,” striking him in the head with “full force with the hammer” and knocking him unconscious, according to court records seeking to deny bail for DePape.
The officers disarmed DePape, according to the motion, while Pelosi lay in a pool of blood for three minutes before regaining consciousness.
DePape told an officer at the scene that “he acted alone,” the motion says.
DePape later revealed to San Francisco police that he planned to kidnap Nancy Pelosi and break her kneecaps, calling her the “leader of the pack” of lies told by the Democratic Party, authorities said.
In the course of his police interview, DePape told investigators “that by breaking Nancy’s kneecaps, she would then have to be wheeled into Congress, which would show other members of Congress there were consequences to actions.”
“I came here to have a little chat with his wife,” DePape added, referring to Paul Pelosi, according to court documents revealed Tuesday. “I didn’t really want to hurt him, but you know, this was a suicide mission.”
Prosecutors allege DePape had other targets in mind — including a Bay Area professor and prominent state and federal politicians and their families — when he broke into the Pelosi's home. He planned to wait for the speaker to return, those documents say.
The Pelosi attack has further heightened concerns about attacks on political figures following the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
There were 9,625 threats against members of Congress and their families last year, according to the Capitol Police — more than twice as many as in 2017. A joint project by the Anti-Defamation League and Princeton University tracked 400 incidents of harassment against local-level election, health and education officials in 43 states from January 2020 until mid-September this year.
Capitol Police said the agency has launched a review of security in the wake of the Pelosi incident.
“We believe today’s political climate calls for more resources to provide additional layers of physical security for Members of Congress,” Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said in a statement. “This plan would include an emphasis on adding redundancies to the measures that are already in place for congressional leadership. Hopefully you can understand that we cannot disclose the details about these improvements because our country cannot afford to make it easier for any potential bad actors.
“During this time of heightened political tension, we continue to monitor thousands of cases across the country in an effort to stop potential threats before they make headlines,” he added.
On Monday, the Department of Justice filed federal assault and kidnapping charges against DePape, and San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins charged DePape with attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon, among other crimes.
Police have not offered a motive for the attack. But Jenkins said Monday that based on DePape’s statements and comments to Pelosi, it “was politically motivated.”
“It’s very sad to see that we are once again at the point in history where people believe that it’s OK to express their political sentiments through violence,” she said. “It demonstrates that we have to calm things down. We have to decide that we’re going to be more respectful as an American society.”
